Perenco comes third in spoof Friends of the Earth award 25 November 2009

More than a thousand people voted for Anglo-French company Perenco in a spoof Friends of the Earth award for human rights.

Perenco was nominated for the award, the ‘Pinocchio Prize 2009’, for its billion dollar project in a part of the Peruvian Amazon inhabited by at least two uncontacted tribes. The company’s work in the area violates the tribes’ rights under international law, and could decimate them if contact is made.

The winner of the award, Bolloré, was announced in a statement by Friends of the Earth (France) yesterday. Perenco came third with 22% of the vote.

The ‘Pinocchio Prize’ is intended to raise awareness of, and condemn, French businesses who ‘perpetrate the most serious human rights violations.’ Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, earlier this year while indigenous people in the Amazon were protesting against his company.